Is it really April….I think I always begin my posts that way. Time does escape me…busy life and getting busier as the days roll into April!
At the end of March we spent a few days in the Red Rock Conservation Area, just west of Las Vegas. We had a successful time teaching at the Red Rock Rendezvous (RRR) as Omega Pacific Athletes and an adventurous climb up Mount Wilson which resulted in a sweet combination and a super successful weekend.
We arrived in Vegas with a giant dust storm…..it soon cleared the way to a beautiful sunny weekend.
Two days of clinics at the RRR- Matt teaching Mixed Face Skills in Willow Canyon and I taught Foot Work and Technique at a wall in the First Pullout area. Our clinics went very well and without a hitch! Great group of folks to spend the days with and perfect weather resulted in primo conditions to teach in! It’s always a blast to create good energy with today’s and tomorrows climbing community and to pass on small details to them (those are the ones that count!) on what makes our days flow at the cliff or on the wall. Red Rocks caters to all abilities and disciplines and with such a fantastic event in a spectacular climbing venue you really can’t get much better.
Pictures of the clinic that I taught over the weekend at the Tuna and Chips Wall- beautiful weather and a great wall to learn foot work and technique!
After the days in the sun, teaching the clinics at the cliff we retired back to the Omega Pacific booth to go over the days events, catch up on life and the times, meet up with pals and to drink our fair share of beer together. It’s always great to reconnect.
After the event finished up Matt and I had our sights on Mount Wilson. This has always been one of those walls I’ve been wanting to climb. It really didn’t matter what route really, I just wanted to climb it. Mount Wilson is the highest point in the park at 7,070 ft. tall at the South Summit. Well over 2,000 ft. of climbing and one the oldest routes in park graces it’s wall- Sentimental Journey. With the snow scattered about the face and the summit, so no need to carry a bunch of water up the face and perfect weather we both knew this was the time to climb it.
We decided to climb Sentimental Journey into Resolution Arete-supposedly rated at a balmy 5.9, and between 20-24 pitches. This was an adventurous approach to climbing Mount Wilson 1) no topo for Sentimental Journey in any book we could find 2) one of the oldest route in the park, put up in 1970 3) brought one rope- so the only way down was up 4) 5 Cliff Bars and six liters of water and two peppermint tea bags. This was right up our alley! We thought about pushing the route out in a day (totally feasible), but we wanted to use our new light bivy gear (Marmot Helium and Alpinist Bivy Sack- under three lbs.). We climbed leisurely, enjoyed the view, climbed light and slept comfortably on the Sherwood Ledge.
We started the 2 hour approach from Oak Creek Campground parking lot to reach the base of Sentimental Journey with perfect timing. Right at sunrise- about 7:30am we started climbing. Since we had no topo, and we all know the variations that Red Rocks can provide you we started up this route keeping in mind that getting off route is a definite possibility. We had a blast- climbing was mostly moderate with a few variations that keep us on our toes and as the day kept on we managed to hit Sherwood Ledge on pitch 13- around 3:30pm…and we decided to hang out drink water and enjoy the waterfalls that were formed by the seasonal snow melt. We thought of pushing on…but decided that maybe we should sleep there and enjoy our solitude in this spectacular area of Red Rocks. During the night the spectacular view of the glowing, electric city of Las Vegas was truly a memorable and incredible sight.
We woke early the next morning to start up some more unknown sandy, scrub oak filled pitches to then reach the arching 5.9+ pitch of Resolution Arete. We climbed another 10 pitches- so much variation we definitely were off route a few times…we did an incredible 5.10+ splitter to OW…and an amazing and exposed 5.11- roof pitch right after the Cat Walk with some of the loosest and chossist rock I have ever climbed on at Red Rocks! It really can’t get much better than that!! We hit the summit of the route around 3:30pm hit the South Point summit cairn and we on our way down to Oak Creek Canyon.
Our decent went smoothly despite that we took a wrong turn in Albuquerque! After an hour or so of lost time we managed to find the correct drainage and found ourselves hiking down an incredible waterfall/ creek down to Oak Creek Canyon just at dark. After 23 pitches it felt like a long hike back to the van…boulder hoping, trail finding in moon light, ring-tail cat appearances in the shadows, dusty and sandy trails….but in all a spectacular place to hiking about.
Glad to be back at the van we took off to find dinner. It’s always hard for me to come back to the ground- really not too sure why…Time does escape me, but on the cliff I live every second of my life! It’s real and truly my great escape.
Enjoy Spring!
